Newbie Guide to Improving your gear

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Pick up every white item"? Really?

Only when you first start and you have no wisdom scrolls. It's the only way to accumulate scrolls when you have nothing. Yes, scrolls drop but not frequently enough when you first start playing.

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Sounds like a waste of time to me to go for the Wisdom Scroll, Armorer Scrap and Blacksmiths Whetstone recipes.
If you just pick up any Orbs on the ground and don't identify every blue, don't 20q every levelling item, you never run out of those three.

Since they added the strongboxes in Ambush, the Armorer and Whetstone recipes are not as necessary as before. I still do them because it allows me to do more of the Alchemy recipe. The more alchemys I have the more jewelery I can convert to rares.

@Peterlerock: Remember though, this is written for someone who has just started playing, It's for those who don't trade for anything like myself, for those who have a habit of running through zones and just killing everything without checking drops, for those who don't know about the recipes. You know the recipes and have 3 characters over 80, so I wouldn't consider you a newbie anymore. There are people who are struggling to get a build over 60 and to get to merciless for the first time. This is written for them.

I definitely appreciate this guide. I just started and there is so much information out there that it is overwhelming for me. This is definitely helful.

One question, Peterlerock used a phrase: "don't 20q every levelling item". What does this mean..

Thanks

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gamerocker wrote:

One question, Peterlerock used a phrase: "don't 20q every levelling item". What does this mean..

For example, there are Whetstones to upgrade the quality of your weapon. For a white weapon, each Whetstone upgrades the quality by 5%, up to a maximum of 20%, but for a yellow weapon, each Whetstone upgrades by 1%, so you would need to spend 20 Whetstones to reach 20% quality. In order to avoid always finding yourself in endless need of more Whetstones, you should carefully think how long term your investment will be. If you are likely going to replace that weapon within a few levels/few hours of gameplay, is it really worth it spending your stack of Whetstones on it?

By applying that same principle to pretty much every other currency you find, you will have a much easier time progressing - because when you find something that you would really like to have 20% quality on (or any other sort of magical properties, for that matter), you will have your stack of orbs ready (having not wasted it on a very weak item).

It is a concept of efficiency.

First thanks for a very clear,helpful response.

So does this mean we should not plan to Whetstone items until we, or the item, are at a certain level ? As a beginner player I have no sense of how long you have to play before you will find gear that is clearly superior to what you have. I don't feel comfortable enough, knowledgeable enough to go trading. So either it drops or I vendor it, mostly though from drops

Thanks

Judging by your characters so far, levels 3, 8, 13, 15, and 26, I doubt you found anything worth investing any currency into. Normal difficulty is really not worth spending much time with. It is merely a "tutorial" to teach you some basic concepts of what awaits ahead. When you reach Cruel difficulty, you will notice that the gear you find might not exactly be suited for the task and the content will seem too hard - that's probably the point where it would be smart to try getting an edge by using the crafting orbs. With moderation in mind. I might sound boring when I say this, but efficiency is a huge factor in successful progression through this game. Upon reaching Merciless, you should already know yourself when to use what, by simply having the feeling of what your character is missing to get the upper hand in a certain situation.

Also do note that I'm simplifying these explanations to an incredible degree - PoE is a game with a billion details.

If you want it summed up in a more "advanced" way: there are orbs of no trading value, and orbs of medium to high trading value. A quick list of high trading value orbs (in order from highest value to least): Mirror of Kalandra, Eternal Orb, Exalted Orb, Divine Orb, Regal Orb, Chaos Orb, Blessed Orb, Gemcutter's Prism, Orb of Regret, Orb of Alchemy, Orb of Fusing. The other orbs are quite common and should drop in quantities high enough to be able to put them to good use where deemed needed. Keep the valuable orbs, and feel free to experiment with the least valuable ones. When you get to evolve your gameplay to the trading part, you will find it incredibly useful that you weren't wasteful before.

A quick tip while at it - check into vendor recipes. That will give you a much nicer income of orbs of all sorts. However take note that doing all the recipes would be a waste of time - so just remember my efficiency mantra - it just wins the game.

One of the best links you can search for information on. <- click!

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So does this mean we should not plan to Whetstone items until we, or the item, are at a certain level

You can add quality to an item at any level that you choose. The best way is to use an item that already has some quality so you don't end up using all your whetstones and armourers because you do want to have some for the Alchemy recipe. You can always split the difference and just add 10& if you're concerned about wasting too much currency too.

It's really a roll of the dice when adding quality to a white before using an Alchemy. You have to ask yourself, "Is the the item that gets me the upgrade I need? Should I go ahead and make it 20%, as opposed to 11%?" This is the part of crafting that I find frustrating, but it is what it is if you don't trade.

bumping for a friend

I really disagree with some of the advice here. Picking up white items to vendor is always a bad idea, even for a level 1 character on a brand new league. It's a waste of time. By taking the time to do that, you get less XP and actual good drops in exchange for a few scrolls, which would have dropped anyway if you just kept killing mobs.

Just skip the white items and keep fighting. You'll be ahead in the long run. Only pick up a white item if you plan to use a Transmute or Alchemy orb on it in order to use it. Usually this will be limited to items with good sockets/links, of an item type than is better than what you're currently using.

The whole reason you feel the need to buy a Portal gem, despite your preference to not trade, is that you waste so much time/scrolls running off to vendor worthless items. If you just change your basic strategy, you will find you have more Portal scrolls than you need even without the Portal gem.

On the topic of the Portal gem, I find that this gem is vastly overrated. When I find one, I'd generally rather sell it for a few Chaos than use it. Not only does it take up a gem slot (which could be used for a more beneficial skill, or to level-up an extra gem), it has abysmally slow cast speed that is unsuitable for casting in dangerous situations. Since it's so god awful slow, you'd need to keep Portal scrolls in your inventory for emergencies anyway, so having the gem isn't even saving you inventory space! Only way I'd want to use Portal gem is with 20% quality linked with Faster Casting, and that's not really worth the investment.

I only recommend picking up blue/magic items under the following conditions:
1. You think you might use the item, if it has decent stats after identifying.
2. Magic jewelry is always worth picking up because it takes only 1 inventory square. Magic belts and potions are also acceptable to pick up, but only half the efficiency of jewelry. I usually vendor these things unidentified for Transmute shards, unless condition #1 applies.
3. If you're desperate for Transmutes and can't/won't buy them from other players, it's acceptable to pick up blue items that take up 4 inventory squares or less (for example, wands and gloves). The larger items (6-8 squares each) are not worth hauling to the vendor for 2 shards each.

The Blacksmith Whetstone and Armourer Scrap recipes are worth doing early in a new league (or for newbie players in any league), but only if you are a bit selective on which items you take. It's not efficient to pick up every item with quality because they can drop with as little as 5% quality (i.e., 1/8 the requirement for the recipe). My strategy for is to only pick up items with at least 13% quality, and which take up 6 inventory squares or less. This means you only need three quality items to complete the recipe, since on average at least one of the three items will be 14+% quality putting you at 40+% total quality.

The other advice about vendor recipes and such is sound. I encourage you to try my suggestions above. Your gameplay will be much less tedious, you'll level faster, and you'll get better loot overall. Any time spent doing low-value tasks is time not spent doing high-value tasks.